City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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In a game filled with turnovers, loose ball mishaps and rims that seemed to have lids on them, La Salle still found itself tied with the Atlantic 10 foe Richmond with 10 minutes to play.

Following a spurt from which the Explorers battled back from down 11 to tie things up just minutes later, it looked as if the contest was in La Salle’s favor, with all of the momentum siding with the home squad.

Then, the wheels fell off for La Salle and Richmond used a late run to top the Explorers by a score of 64-52 in front of a nearly sold out crowd in North Philadelphia.

The 19-2 run from Richmond (15-9, 9-3 Atlantic 10) over the span of six minutes following the deadlock proved to be too much for La Salle (13-10, 7-5 Atlantic 10) to overcome as a 62-47 hole with just over three minutes remaining sent many of the Explorer fans to their cars early and spelled the end for La Salle.

“The score was tied, then they got a three and then we had some guys relax a little bit defensively and all of a sudden we were down eight,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said. “We really couldn’t dribble, pass, shoot or grab a ball. It was just astounding. I have rarely seen something like that.”

La Salle turned the ball over 10 times over the span of Richmond’s run and also failed to connect on a field goal for over six minutes.

“We just couldn’t make a play,” Giannini said. “We couldn’t dribble or pass or shoot. We were falling down and fumbling the ball and we looked like we have not played basketball before.”

Although the late push from Richmond was what finally ended La Salle’s hopes of escaping with a win, the Explorers woes started way before the final stretch as they shot a dismal 8-of-27 (.296) from the field in the first half and had already committed 10 turnovers before the intermission.

“Richmond was very good, especially defensively,” Giannini said. “We have good players but I think Richmond set a tone of aggressiveness and defense that we just didn’t respond to.”

Richmond’s defensive effort amped up in the second half as it forced 14 more La Salle turnovers, giving the Explorers a total 24 for the game, its worst performance of the season in that category.

“They were by far the tougher team,” Giannini said, “I watched a team that couldn’t dribble, pass or shoot. I’m at a loss.”

On top of the turnovers, scoring was even more of an issue for La Salle as the usually fluid Explorer offense that ranks 37th in efficiency according to KenPom fell 27 points short of their season average.

Highlighting the scoring woes was the three-point shooting of La Salle. The Explorers rank 57th in all of Division I hoops in three-point percentage, shooting at a clip of 37.9 percent on the season, and on Saturday afternoon La Salle shot just 4-of-20 (.200) from beyond the arc.

“Give Richmond credit,” Giannini said. “They didn’t give us anything.”

While Richmond’s defense was what allowed it to escape Tom Gola Arena victorious, the Spiders received a solid performance on the other end from senior forward T.J. Cline.

The 6-foot-9 Cline, who is a candidate for Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, stuffed the stat sheet on Saturday afternoon, scoring 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting while also grabbing eight rebounds, dealing out seven assists and also coming up with two steals.

Leading the way for La Salle was its lone double-digit scorer of the afternoon, B.J. Johnson. The redshirt junior led the Explorers with 18 points, although it took him 17 shots to get there, and also grabbed five rebounds.

Aiding Johnson were the efforts of La Salle’s big man duo Demetrius Henry and Tony Washington. The two finished with eight points each and Henry also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in the defeat.

Luckily for La Salle, it won’t have to dwell on this unusual showing for long as the Explorers will head to St. Bonaventure for a clash with the Bonnies on Wednesday night.

Hopefully, the Explorers get their mojo back for that one and avoid another outing like this one.